Improved house for preserving fruits and other articles



N H'ELLINGS; House for Preservingfruit and bther Articles. No. 69,806. IPatnted Oct. 15,1867.

' WI {Wt-sass UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE N. HELLINGS, OF PHILADELPHIA,PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED HOUSE FOR PRESERVING FRUITS AND OTHER ARTICLES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 69,806, dated October15, 1867.

accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention is a house of large capacity, but theessential principles of which can be applied to abuilding of likeconstruction of any less capacity, constructed as follows:

First. A strong wall of'stone, or of bricks and mortar, twenty-seveninches thick, and of any dimensions up to eighty feet for the sides ofthe. building, and fifty feet for the Width, and thirty-five feet high,the said outer walls being represented by A A- 011 the accompanyingdiagram.

Second. Inner walls,B B, of studding, board ed close on both sides, andforming together a thickness not less than six inches, placed at adistance of twelve inches, or separated from the outer wall by a spaceof twelve inches,

0 G, which space is closely filled with sawdust, or a similarnon-conducting material, the space between the studding and between thetwo faces of the inner wall being vacant, and being about three inches.

Third. The building is covered with an ordinary wooden and shingledroof, strongly framed, D D, and placed at the usual angles ofinclination.

Fourth. The entrance to the building is through a door at the level ofthe lower floor, closing air-tight, and opening into an anteroom largeenough to contain seventy-five barrels, which ante-room is purposelykept at a higher temperature than the storage-rooms, and in which fruitsor other articles mayremain for atime preparatory to removal to theinterior or to the external air.

Fifth. The principal r lower floor of the building is a strong floorof'wooden joists and plank, E E, resting on cross-walls of masonry,

which rise two feet from the surface of the earth, and between whichwalls and joists the intervening spaces of two feet in depth are vacant.Upon this lower section of the floor. joists are laid, rising eighteeninches, and on these joists the floor of thick boards is placed, whichis the true floor of the first or lower storage-room, the space betweenthese floors, of eighteen inches, being closely packed with sawdust or asimilar non-conducting material. This double lower floor is representedin the diagram by E E, and the storage-room above Sixth. Strong Woodenposts, twelve inches square, rising from lines or points coincident withthe cross-walls beneath, support, at a height of eight feet in theclear, the floor G G of a second great storage-room, H H. This secondfloor is made of strong wooden girders, on which joists are laid, with acover of boards, but it is not packed with any non-conducting material.Above this second floor wooden posts rise, in the manner described, aheight of eight feet in the clear in the center, and eleven feet at thesides of the building, to a heavy double ice-floor, I I of the diagram,which ice-floor is made of heavy wooden girders, laid at an angle of tenor twelve degrees inclination from the sides toward the center of thebuilding, securely fastened by iron straps and bolts at the center, onwhich girders joists,rising eighteen inches, are laid, and on thesejoists a water-tight sheet-iron floor is laid to receive the ice. Thissheet-iron is out at the center by an opening threeinches wide,extending the entire length of the building, except about twelve inchesat each end, where the floor is complete, to prevent the drainage fromwetting the wall, through.which opening the drainage from melted icepasses, falling first on a fixture in the form of a doublepitched roof,K K, four feet wide in all, or two feet for each pitch, which fixture iscovered with copper, and fitted in sections between the girders. Thespaces between the joists of this ice-floor are left'unfilled.

From this narrow roof shaped fixture th'e "drainage falls upon each sideupon a drip-floor,

L L, the-larger sections or parts of which are suspended by iron hooksat a distance of about ten inches beneaththe timbers or girders of theice-floor, other and smaller sections at each side of the building beingfastened to and between the girders, and placed at a greater angle, todrain any water they may receive upon the large sections, suspended asbefore described. All parts of this drip-floor are of yellow pine, wellpainted and watertight. At the inner and lower edges of this drip-floorthe water falls into troughs or conductors, of copper, which empty intocopper pipes, by which the water is conveyed to the level of the secondfloor and out at the sides of the building.

Aboveand upon the ice-floor is the icechamber M M, occupying all theupper area of the building, and into which, through an elevated door,(outlined in red on the crosssection diagram, and marked (1,) ice isconveyed, filling it to a depth of twelve or thirteen feet. This ice,carefully packed down, is covered with sawdust to the depth of two feet.

The great storage-rooms F l and H H have, at the full size actuallybuilt and in use, a capacity for each of thirty thousand to fortythousand cubic feet, and they are ventilated by the combinationdescribed as follows, and shown in part by reference to the red-linedparts of the cross-section diagram and to the smaller horizontalsections of the margin.

First, an upper side entrance, on the north side of the bullding, openson aspace incloscd, six feet by four, through the ice, and throughahatch, opening upward, admits air downward into the storage-room H H.At the same time a hatch opening upward, at the northeast corner of thebuilding'carries out through an inclosed ventilating-space, six feetsquare, passing through the ice-bed, acurrent of air equal to thatadmitted at the sideentrance door above described. The bad air, in thiscase, passes into the vacant area above the ice and out at the windowsof the observatory I); but it may also, and when the conditions of theweather require it, be expelled at the eastern end entrance, 0, or thenorthern side entrance, d. When no ventilation is required, and no foulair exists in the storagerooms, the entrance-doors above described andthe hatches are kept securely closed.

To better illustrate the ventilation through the several floors,horizontal sections are drawn on the margin of the diagram, Nos. 1, 2,and 3, representing, respectively, the first, second, and third floors.

In No. 1, 0 represents the space inclosed as an ante-room. At the footof the doors opening from this ante-room to the storage-room and to theopen air, movable sections of blocks are cut 011, three inches high andthe full length of each door, to permit the outward ventilation ofcarbonic-acid gas or other heavy air, which blocks are only moved wheiiventilation is necessary.

In N 0. 2, f represents a hatch, opening upward, at or above theante-room; and g represents stairs descending from the tloor above,

at the other side of the building, and beneath the ventilatingentrance-door on the north side.

In No. 3, i represents a hatch, six feet square, opening upward into aninclosed ventilating-space passing through the ice, and into which theend entrance-door, U, of the larger diagram, and h of the smallerdiagrams, No. 2 and No. 3, may be opened from the out side, but which isusually kept closed, while foul air is passed upward through the hatchand ventilator. In No. 3, j represents the northern upper entrance-door,which is used chiefly to admit cold airt'or ventilation. This door openson a space inclosed from the icechamber, six feet by five, with a hatchbelow, opening to the storage-room, and aclose staircase-door, throughwhich access may be had upward to the area over the ice.

The great purpose and the end actually at tained is to preserve the airof the storagechainbers pure, to maintain a tempe ature from 33 to 37Fahrenheit, whatever quantity of fruits may be in store, and to preventthe deposit of moisture on any of the surfaces or walls, and also toprevent any dripping from the ceilings or ice-floor, or parts in contactwith the ice.

The improvement and combination on which I claim a patent consistsin-- 1. The arrangement of the walls, floors, and ventilating apparatus,as above described; the use of wooden surfaces with non-conducting orpoor conducting linings, or blank spaces, between all inner surfaces andthe outer walls or the earth the arrangement of ventilatingentrances atthe level of the ice-floor, with hatches opening down to thestorage-rooms andinclosed spaces to carry off bad air through the massof ice upward, when it is light air, and downward out at the bottoms ofthe entrance-doors when it is carbonic-acid gas or like heavy air, asdescribed above, the light air passing through the upper space above theice, and thence out at the windows of the observatory.

2. And I claim the arrangement of the icefloor, as described, thearrangement to prevent dripping from this floor, the open space betweenthe joists on which the iron floor lies, the copper-coverednarrow-pitched root, to receive water from the melting ice, and thesuspended drip-floor, on which this water falls before passing off inthe drainage-troughs.

3. And I claim the combination of all these parts and devices, as makingup a whole, all parts of which are essential to the preservation of thepure air, and at the necessary low temperature, and free from any excessof moisture, or any deposit of moisture on the floors, walls, or anypart of the storage-chambers.

Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, August24,1867.

N. HELLINGS.

Witnesses:

GEORGE KERN, LORIN BLODGET.

